Snapshots from books 2-11

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Hi all!
This is my final project for my ancient Greek class on the Iliad. I’m not a professional photographer or make-up artist, but I had this project idea in my head and so I just went with it and learned a lot along the way. All translations are by me.

With a project like this that takes over 2 hours per shoot, reaching up to over 30 hours of brainstorming, prep, make-up, shooting, and driving around with a full car of costumes, a shield, and helmets, I now understand why artists have their own studios. :)

This is a portrait of Dolon, the spy whom Hector sent out to find out about the Achaeans’ next move. However, Dolon was captured by Odysseus and Diomedes who ironically, weed out information from him, fearing for his life, concerning the Trojans’ positions and their allies.
Odysseus and Diomedes then slay Dolon, still speaking as his head falls to the ground (Iliad, lines 454-9).
Initially, I wanted to just do a photo of eyes, but then I thought that including more face would give him more credit. The main thing I wanted to convey was curiosity and fear and I think I achieved that.
His death is problematic for me. What is its role in the epic? Was it supposed to evoke emotion in the audience, or was it simply a matter of protocol to kill a spy?
I’ve always had a soft spot for these kinds of characters, like Piggy from Lord of the Flies, or the first people to die in a slasher movie. Reading it from a modern perspective, Dolon embodies that kind of meek, yet brave character that still ends up dying a cruel death.

There, reaching forward to strike, the high-hearted son of Tydeus, leaping, wounded the feeble hand with the sharp spear. At once, the spear bore right through the skin through the immortal cloth which the Graces had fabricated for her, over the base of her palm, and immortal blood gushed from the goddess, the serum of such a kind that runs through the blessed divinities.

In book 5, Athena allow Diomedes to see the gods that are involved in battle, however he may not injure any of them, except Aphrodite.
I think I would have preferred to do a full portrait of Aphrodite or Diomedes for this book, however I still like the end result.
The “golden apple” here is supposed to represent Aphrodite being wounded by Diomedes. The whole photo should also evoke some kind of cosmic force at play.

I imagined the dual between Hector and Ajax as quite playful and finishing on a kind of stale mate, so I wanted to use chess and Lego as a setting!
The actual scene being portrayed is the gift exchange between them, where Hector gives Ajax a silver sword, and Ajax give him a purple belt in return. They have to stop; Zeus call off their fighting because night has fallen.

Man’s appointed doom is the same for the man who stays at home, the same if he wages war. But we share the same honor, the brave men and the base men. But we die away the same, the idle man and the one who has done much. There is nothing laid out for me, since I have felt pain in my heart, forever fighting, my life, fodder.

The request for Achilles to go back to fighting really reminded me of propaganda posters recruiting people to join the army. Even now, there are many benefits to joining the army, namely a free education. Would you join the army and go to war for one billion dollars? What about one million? What about one hundred thousand?
Agememnon thinks it is inevitable that Achilles will want to come back when offered with such astounding gifts. However, Achilles refuses to accept his offer and chooses not to participate. He asserts power by not giving Agamemnon want he wants.

…and one day, some man, seeing you pouring down tears, might say: “Here is the wife of Hector, who was the best of the Trojans in battle, breaker of horses, when they fought in Ilion.” Thus one will ask about you, and it will be a new sorrow for you to lack such a man to ward off the day of your slavery. But I have died and let earth, poured down, cover me before I learn of your shouts from being carried off.

This is a picture of Hector and Andromache’s impossible future. I used the famous V-J Day picture because it is an iconic American victory photo, and it is so ironic when contrasted with the outcome for Hector and the rest of the Trojans. When they meet for the last time in book VI, they have a moment where they kind of say goodbye and realize their futures will not be as bright as they might have hoped. The line is grey between pretending everything is going to be OK, and realistically dealing with what will actually happen to both of them after the war.

So she spoke, and Helen, Zeus’s daughter was scared and went, covering herself in her radiant, shining robe, quiet, she escaped the notice of all the Trojan women, but the goddess was in the lead. When they came to the beautiful house of Paris, the handmaids went quickly to their work, but she, heavenly among women, went to the high-roofed bed chamber. And laughter-loving Aphrodite seized a chair for her,carrying it, the goddess set it before Paris,and there Helen sat, daughter of Zeus of the Aegis,having turned back her eyes, she reproved her husband with words:“You come back from the fight. How you wish to be destroyed on the spot, overpowered by the stronger man, who was my husband once before…”

I’m really happy with how this picture turned out. I was aiming for a playful pinup-style photo with attitude.
In book 3, we get a closer look at Helen’s character within the epic. It is a rare occasion that a mortal woman even speaks at all. Though trapped, Helen manages to maneuver herself within this context. Though is it still unclear whether we are to take her as an inanimate war-prize, or and outspoken woman, in charge of her surroundings.